Tips on How to Prevent Lyme Disease for This Summer

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Summer time is coming up and a lot of folks are gearing up to go camping, have fun in the lakes, and just genuinely exploring beautiful and wild landscapes near them. While all of these are very fun things to do in the summer, outgoers need to beware possible health risk factors, and one of the most common – especially within the outdoors – is Lyme disease.

What is Lyme Disease?

Lyme disease is a bacterial infection that is transmitted by the bite of black legged ticks. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention some of the side effects of Lyme disease are: fever, headache, fatigue, and a unique skin rash called erythema migrans that spreads outward from the initial bite. The CDC goes on to state that if Lyme disease is not treated that it can cause further health issues because the infection can spread to the joints, heart, and eventually the nervous system.

So How Do We Prevent It?

While Lyme disease can be treated fairly easily with a general course of antibiotics here are a few tips that can help you prevent it before it even starts.

Know Risk Areas – As stated before, the outdoors are a big risk area when it comes to Lyme disease as Ticks contract it from consuming the blood of animals from birds to livestock. For the most part, however, ticks tend to reside in vegetative areas with a lot of greenery such as: forests, woodlands, and moors.

Use Repellant on Skin And Clothes – it’s common knowledge that ticks stick to the skin, we’ve seen it in movies, and we know that they are called the vampire insect for a reason, but what most people don’t realize is that they also stick onto your clothes without you noticing. From here the tick can easily latch on to open skin when you are removing your clothes, so be aware.